Chain catchers.

Dippydog3

Occasionally I do stupid things and my chain comes of the small ring. No biggie really, but the gap between the ring and the frame is quite small, the chain gets jammed and unless I react quickly and take pressure off the chain I can take a lump out of the paintwork.

I am led to believe a chain catcher can solve this.

Any experience and recommendations please? Not sure if it makes any difference but the front mech is Shimano 6800.

iPete

I have one of the below, largely because it matches the other red bits on the bike. It hasn't ever been needed, check the limits set on your front derailleur.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/token-tk375-cha ... oad-mechs/

ai_1

Dippydog3 wrote:

Occasionally I do stupid things and my chain comes of the small ring. No biggie really, but the gap between the ring and the frame is quite small, the chain gets jammed and unless I react quickly and take pressure off the chain I can take a lump out of the paintwork.

I am led to believe a chain catcher can solve this.

Any experience and recommendations please? Not sure if it makes any difference but the front mech is Shimano 6800.

There's two types that I'm aware of. One is a dog's tooth which is a small plastic component that clamps to a round downtube with a projection that looks sort of like a tooth that prevents the chain dropping inside the inner chainring. The other type is the the type in IPete's link in the previous post. They mount on the seat tube bottle cage mounts (doesn't prevent you using it for a bottle cage too). It's just an aluminium arm projecting down beside the inner chainring to do the same job. The latter will work on non-round tubes or tubes where you don't want to clamp anything.
I've used both. Dog's tooth on my old bike, and a Canyon version other type on my current bike. I had the chain squeeze inside the dog's tooth on one occassions. It wasn't possible to position it exactly where I'd have liked it. However I think it probably prevented chain dropping many times too. I've never had a dropped chain yet with the current one - can't say if that's the catcher, better groupset setup or just because I've done less miles.

gloomyandy

The one that comes as part of the SRAM Yaw front mech seems to work very well and is very easy to setup. I'm surprised that other manufacturers have not added this.

47p2

The ones in the link above from iPete use the same bolt that hold the front derailleur onto a brazed-on type fitting not the bottle cage bolts, so if you have a band on FD then this will not be suitable. The dogtooth type are only suitable if you have parallel seat tubing and as most carbon frames are not then it makes this application unsuitable. Canyon do a bolt on type that utilises the bottle cage bolts

rolf_f

iPete wrote:

I have one of the below, largely because it matches the other red bits on the bike. It hasn't ever been needed, check the limits set on your front derailleur.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/token-tk375-cha ... oad-mechs/

Ideally, you shouldn't know if it was ever needed!

I wouldn't recommend this one. There are plenty of others that are equally sensibly priced that are much stronger. The problem with the Token ones is that they lack rigidity due to the slots. I found occasionally that my chain would still manage to get past the chain catcher despite being firmly mounted - until one day it broke. I may have just been unlucky with particular circumstances of the geometry of my bike and components but I replaced it with a Raleigh one from Ebay (loads of different brandings available) without slots in it and that is much less flexible for probably no weight penalty.

Chances are, 99 times out of a 100 that the Token will be perfectly fine - but there's that chance it won't so it's probably best to avoid the product with the deliberately questionable design feature!

ai_1

47p2 wrote:

The ones in the link above from iPete use the same bolt that hold the front derailleur onto a brazed-on type fitting not the bottle cage bolts, so if you have a band on FD then this will not be suitable....

Apologies for the inaccurate information. I assumed the Token item was similar to the Canyon one (i.e. used bottle coge bolts)

redvee

I had a braze on mech and adapter on my last bike and used a Krex chain catcher off Ebay but the new bike has a 34.9 seat tube so that was an option but the Dog Fang thing was the cheaper option for me. Got it set up at the same height as the chain on the inner ring with 0.5mm clearance, is this right?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KREX-Chain-Dr ... 3a829ef51b

norvernrob

I have K-Edge ones on mine, bit of a faff to install as you need to replace the braze-on anchor bolt with one of the longer ones supplied, which means setting up the FD again. Once it's done it's done though, no idea if I've ever needed it but its something I'd rather have on than not.

Dippydog3

NorvernRob wrote:

I have K-Edge ones on mine, bit of a faff to install as you need to replace the braze-on anchor bolt with one of the longer ones supplied, which means setting up the FD again. Once it's done it's done though, no idea if I've ever needed it but its something I'd rather have on than not.

Thanks. I was thinking of this one. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/k-edge-chain-catcher-double/

barrie h

I made one like the Canyon one but in 6mm carbon fibre, a fixed hole on the top bottle cage mount and a slot at the bottom one so it could be ajusted as required . I made one in ply wood first to get the shape right .

Barrie

charlie_potatoes

All of the above mentioned are massively heavy and range from 6 grams right up to the obese 'Krex' at 17 grams.

Fit these and you'll likely find your bike pulling to the right and out into the path of passing vehicles.

This is the one I recommend.........

http://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Sigma-Sport/Carbon-Fibre-Chain-Catcher/13DI?wmp=

Dippydog3

Charlie Potatoes wrote:

All of the above mentioned are massively heavy and range from 6 grams right up to the obese 'Krex' at 17 grams.

Fit these and you'll likely find your bike pulling to the right and out into the path of passing vehicles.

This is the one I recommend.........

http://www.sigmasport.co.uk/item/Sigma-Sport/Carbon-Fibre-Chain-Catcher/13DI?wmp=

Yes, but it is pig ugly.

I have gone with the obscenely heavy (at 10g) Wiggle one. to compensate I shall dress to the left in future when putting on my bibs.

Nick_M

I have a K-Edge one. Chain's not jumped in the year since I fitted it compared to once every couple of months before. It took about half an hour to fit, going very slowly, and it is nice and inconspicuous.

IanRCarter

Are they actually needed? Surely if the low bump stop is set correctly then the chain shouldn't be able drop?

Bar Shaker

I have a K Edge one and it is useless. On the very rare occasions that my chain does come off (a chain ring change on a very bad road surface? - it's happened twice in 18 months), the leverage of the chain pull at the bottom of the arm easily moves the arm across and the chain disappears between the gap.

The presence of the K Edge then just makes it much messier getting the chain back on.

The only one that works is the £5 Dog Fang and this is what I will be replacing my K Edge with.

Dippydog3

Bar Shaker wrote:

I have a K Edge one and it is useless. On the very rare occasions that my chain does come off (a chain ring change on a very bad road surface? - it's happened twice in 18 months), the leverage of the chain pull at the bottom of the arm easily moves the arm across and the chain disappears between the gap.

The presence of the K Edge then just makes it much messier getting the chain back on.

The only one that works is the £5 Dog Fang and this is what I will be replacing my K Edge with.

no way that will fit on my frame.

Tjgoodhew

gloomyandy wrote:

The one that comes as part of the SRAM Yaw front mech seems to work very well and is very easy to setup. I'm surprised that other manufacturers have not added this.

I have this with my Force 22.

I have either not dropped a chain or it works so well that i havent noticed the chain catcher doing its job. Either way its simple, easy to set up and as above i cant see why it isnt just a standard piece of kit on all groupsets

charlie_potatoes

Dippydog3 wrote:

I have gone with the obscenely heavy (at 10g) Wiggle one. to compensate I shall dress to the left in future when putting on my bibs.

Ah! the old 10 gram counter weight. Good call

rolf_f

Bar Shaker wrote:

I have a K Edge one and it is useless. On the very rare occasions that my chain does come off (a chain ring change on a very bad road surface? - it's happened twice in 18 months), the leverage of the chain pull at the bottom of the arm easily moves the arm across and the chain disappears between the gap.

The presence of the K Edge then just makes it much messier getting the chain back on.

The only one that works is the £5 Dog Fang and this is what I will be replacing my K Edge with.

You should be able to tighten it up firmly enough that that doesn't happen. Of course, that's exactly what I got told when telling the same story about my Token chain catcher. But the K Edge catchers are vastly more rigid than the Token ones - I certainly had the Token tight enough.

My Raleigh one has an extra line of defence. A little hook at the bottom so that if the chain did get that far down, it would just sit over the hook rather than falling through.

If the Dog Fang fits, then go for it. But I suspect just going for a different shaped alloy catcher might be just as good a solution.

rolf_f

Bar Shaker wrote:

I have a K Edge one and it is useless. On the very rare occasions that my chain does come off (a chain ring change on a very bad road surface? - it's happened twice in 18 months), the leverage of the chain pull at the bottom of the arm easily moves the arm across and the chain disappears between the gap.

The presence of the K Edge then just makes it much messier getting the chain back on.

The only one that works is the £5 Dog Fang and this is what I will be replacing my K Edge with.

You should be able to tighten it up firmly enough that that doesn't happen. Of course, that's exactly what I got told when telling the same story about my Token chain catcher. But the K Edge catchers are vastly more rigid than the Token ones.

My Raleigh one has an extra line of defence. A little hook at the bottom so that if the chain did get that far down, it would just sit over the hook rather than falling through.

If the Dog Fang fits, then go for it. But I suspect just going for a different shaped alloy catcher might be just as good a solution.

Bar Shaker

Rolf, It's not the arm bending on the K Edge, it is that the little M4 bolt won't give a high enough torque to stop the arm moving when it has any pressure against it... such as from a chain that you are still pedalling.

The Dog Fang sits at the chain height and cannot move anywhere. It is a much better solution... if it fits your seat tube.

g00se

Superstar components do a decent budget catcher:

http://www.superstarcomponents.com/en/s ... cessories/

The dog fang is the most reliable, if it fits. However, if the chain falls, it can end up sitting on the dog-fang, rather than the little ring. In which case, you have to shift up to bring the chain back on. Easy to do, but a bit of a surprise when it happens.

krogort

Any idea if the Canyon is compatible with other brands ?
Seems to solve the problem of the chain catcher moving due to torque applied on the arm.

nferrar

+1 to the Token one being next to useless, it just bends out of the way

flasher

Bar Shaker wrote:

Rolf, It's not the arm bending on the K Edge, it is that the little M4 bolt won't give a high enough torque to stop the arm moving when it has any pressure against it... such as from a chain that you are still pedalling.

You did you use the serrated washer that came in the fixing pack?

birdie23

IanRCarter wrote:

Are they actually needed? Surely if the low bump stop is set correctly then the chain shouldn't be able drop?

My thoughts, I've only ever had the chain drop when I've left it on the small ring before taking the wheel off.

norvernrob

Just remembered a time when mine came in handy. I got caught at some changing lights, changed down to the small ring but as I stopped quickly I didn't pedal for it to drop. When I set off I forgot, stood on the pedals and rammed the chain down. The K-edge catcher flexed slightly outwards but still stopped the chain from slamming into the frame, it was caught between the small ring and catcher and was easy enough to pull out.

I can't see any situations where I'd be putting more force than that onto it so I'm happy it won't be moving anywhere.

Bar Shaker

Flasher wrote:

Bar Shaker wrote:

Rolf, It's not the arm bending on the K Edge, it is that the little M4 bolt won't give a high enough torque to stop the arm moving when it has any pressure against it... such as from a chain that you are still pedalling.

You did you use the serrated washer that came in the fixing pack?

No, I didn't get one but it would have made no difference. A serrated washer between the arm and the bolt head would ensure that any movement loosened the bolt, so hardly ideal.

Putting the serrated washer between the arm and the carbon mount for my front mech would ensure that any movement wrote the frame off. Also not ideal.

de_sisti

Rolf F wrote:

I wouldn't recommend this one. There are plenty of others that are equally sensibly priced that are much stronger.

Examples?

rolf_f

De Sisti wrote:

Rolf F wrote:

I wouldn't recommend this one. There are plenty of others that are equally sensibly priced that are much stronger.

Examples?

Just look on Ebay. Plenty of choices in various shapes without any daft slots! I'd imagine a few of the usual online retailers have similar as well by now.